Friday, January 08, 2010

R.I.P. Vic Chesnutt. Not everyone noticed on Christmas day, but those of us that did felt it, and maybe even more now that the holiday haze has cleared away. May you float weightlessly and write unconstrained in heaven.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Chan Marshall sings with Flat Duo Jets' Dex Romweber in this great classic song of longing, "Love Letters," from the Dex Romweber Duo's Ruins of Berlin. It might have been done best by Ketty Lester, see the video below, but the warm tone color in Chan's voice is perfect for yearning.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Some of the Oxford American magazine's Southern Music compilations are fetching ridiculous sums. I saw one of the comps, I don't remember from which year, for over $120 on Amazon.com. Crazy, since they're free with a $15 subscription. I have several of the compilations, and I get a more mileage out of them than an old rusty pickup. The last song on the 6th CD in the series is a lingering and proper farewell: a musical version of the classic children's book that has been read to you in dim, flickering light.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Hoop + Wire is the forthcoming (early March) release from Boy Eats Drum Machine, the brainchild of Jonny Ragel, the prolific composer from a basement in the landlocked nation of Portland. Here he takes straight progressions, preserves them, and yet disjoints them with stop-and-go syncopated rhythms and echoes. Stumbling hasn't been this charming since They Might Be Giants. Plus, there's something about the solo ethic that makes the music feel personal and real, like a home cooked meal by a grandma versus a chef's specialty prepared by a disciplined team. The critics-be-damned, this is how I like to make my dish mentality. Who doesn't relate to that?

Monday, January 04, 2010

Sometimes I think of music bloggers as warped Seussian Hortons, holding out fuzzy pink flowers to imagined masses, insisting that here, right here on this little pink fuzzy, is something that exists and might enchant you and color your world if you will just have a listen. Meanwhile, the imagined masses seek out the things that they already know and love, too busy to stop at every snotty trunk-gripped flower that is rudely shoved in front of their faces.

So I've been busy with new challenges, neglecting the community of Who-ville, though like the tree that fell in the forest, I didn't really make a noise anyway.

Although my studies are only about to intensify, I still have my own ears, and I can at least try to remind myself that I exist. And so I'm going to start posting again, for no other reason than "It feels good."

Here's a little pink flower with Marie "Queenie" Lyons. She was a soul singer in the 60's, who worked with the great James Brown (R.I.P.), and made one LP and a few 45's. After Soul Fever was released in 1970, she disappeared. But unlike "The Smudge of Ashen Fluff," she made a noise.